Best Option - On Boat Internet Services

I'm trying to figure out the best option for on boat internet access and I had some questions. First of all I spoke with Moorings and they recommended renting a "surf router pak" from Renport at $40 a day. Any one know what carrier they use? Also what kind of speeds are generally available and what the coverage area looks like? Also, given this is a bit pricey I was wondering if there are some lower cost options. Finally a couple of the guys on our boat believe they can finaggle either a Verizon or AT&T "mifi" router from their corporate IT dept. Will either of these carriers work ok in the BVI (probably need to add an international data plan)? Does one work better than the other? TIA

We used to use Lime for our cell service on the boat. I now use my T-Mobile account, no international data cost and setup my phone to be a hot spot. Speed isn't blazing and you can't stream but that isn't an issue for us.

You have to force the phone not to try to connect to tmobile and stay on digicell when in range of St Thomas as the data coverage in STT is horrible, coverage in BVI is great, even on Anegada.

ATT will cost you a fortune even with a international plan.

On a recent 10 day trip I paid $60 for an AT&T international data package. I then tethered/paired other devices to the phone. Worked great everywhere with good speeds.

High speed internet is free at TMM and it covers the entire area.

In STT maybe, no AT&T signal in BVI and data is very expensive. We got a Lime data card with our mi-fi works great about $50 for 5 Gigs of data for the whole boat. AT&T woks in BVI on the west side only

It worked fine in the BVI generally connecting to the Lime network. There is no need for international data in the USVI with ATT.

see: ATT Passport

Other carriers likely have similar plans.

That's a joke right? $120 for 800Mb??

Better off buying a lime or digicell sim and router.

Lime is 7 X the data for 1/2 the price.

to thedogs if you have AT&T through Lime calls are $2 a minute and data is the pink slip for your car, not sure what you are looking at. Yes, ATT cell service is free in STT, but data is limited

Do any of the available wireless internet services support streaming Pandora or other music service? We have a 4G MIFI booked for our charter at Pro Valor but they say no streaming.

We get Pandora through our iPhone and bluetooth to our stereo system. I could be wrong but i know XM does not reach BVI, same with Pandora? You can definitely stream with Lime and fast enough for Sling Box

Mike, did you use the wifi from TMM? How was the coverage?

Jimp,

I'm still trying to figure this stuff out but here is what I think I know.

In early December I rented from Renport at the Sunsail/Moorings base. They had a $120 wifi for 7 days. I made a deal with them for $150 (the next plan up) for 10 days, so $15/day. I don't know which carrier Renport uses. My experience was that it worked in some anchorages and not in others.

Since I plan to do this more in the future I plan to buy an unlocked wifi modem and then get a sim card from Digicell or Lime (they both have stores in Roadtown near the round-a-bout). You might look at data plans on mrsimcard.com although it seems you pay a premium on their sim cards for the convience. I am thinking buying my own wifi router will be cheaper than Renport in the long run.

If "the guys" can get a GSM wifi modem from IT (Verison is not GSM) and someone wants to figure out how to unlock it you might save the price of the wifi modem, not that expensive to buy one though and I think you can do a hard reset on it so it will be locked to ATT again, as I understand it.

These are just my musings, I'm sure others can help out with more detailed information.

I must respectfully correct you on the ATT information. We have been on our boat in the BVI since November and I get my ATT signal at Sopers Hole, JVD and even at the Willy T! Not just the Bight but sitting on the Willy T. Was not this way in the past but now ATT seems to be much better even without being in sight of the USVI. Of course no ATT at North Sound, Road Town ETC. but if you plan properly.....

I know someone who got a roaming bill of around $6,000 a few years ago. The U.S. carrier, maybe not att, said you were in the bvi. The fact you were on our towers is not relevant. The kind carrier permitted extended payment terms but no discount. So be careful.

At&t doesn't have any extra charges if you are on their network in the virgins. I believe Verizon had additional charges though.

We get an at&t signal on the west side of the BVI and use as lime phone everywhere else.

I believe moorings uses digicel. At least when we used one provided by them, that's what it was.

"I must respectfully correct you on the ATT information. We have been on our boat in the BVI since November and I get my ATT signal at Sopers Hole, JVD and even at the Willy T! Not just the Bight but sitting on the Willy T. Was not this way in the past but now ATT seems to be much better even without being in sight of the USVI. Of course no ATT at North Sound, Road Town ETC. but if you plan properly..... "

nothing to correct me about I agree 100%, plenty of AT&T signal on the west side, even in my post.

I was surprised to get ATT data last June while at Fallen Jerusalem, Key Bay (Peter Island), and JVD. We weren't able to pick it up at East End, North Sound, Trellis, or Marina Cay.

Things are getting much better on the ATT front. many years ago it was just sopers and JVD. Now if we can see ST John, we get signal. I have been all the way up to spanishtown/baths and had signal on a iphone5s. true, we must be above deck to get. clear day, no rain, even heavy haze makes cooper a hit and miss deal.

used to make the rounding of sopers, the big call grandma time call. now we have to turn the damn thing off all the time. nothing is worse than getting a phone call in the BVI. yuck

I've got a MiFi that I bought from CCT years back.
They say their system has changed... and this thing is useless.
Anyone know if this is useable for anything other than a coaster ?

I'm still wondering about streaming music via MIFI (Digicel I think). I'm thinking of putting my IPhone on airplane mode so there would be no danger of racking up data roaming bills, sign on to the MIFI network and run Pandora. Has anybody been able to do this or is there another solution? Thanks

"nothing is worse than getting a phone call in the BVI. yuck"

A very close friend who is a painting contractor got a $30,000 job sailing from STT to SVI, not a bad day. Sometimes phones can be a good thing. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

We stopped in to Spanishtown on Tuesday and hit the Digicel store to buy a router and a prepaid sim. It was a quick and painless exercise. We bought the Huawei B681 110V router and I'm impressed with the speed. 3GB good for 30 days was $55. Performance is pretty impressive.

We got ATT later that day at Cooper Island on our mifi and multiple devices.

Having both ATT and Digicel will let us spend more in de islands. With 9+ weeks scheduled sailing this year, leaving work behind is not an option.

Pandora, everything, works fine over the routers. For our smartphones we just leave data roaming off and use wifi when we do not have service. With unlimited data plans on our smartphones we try to keep them on ATT.

Cheers, RickG

Thanks RickG

That's helpful. There are a couple of people in our crew that would like to remain "casually connected" to the real world for our charter. I figured why not see if we could stream music as well.

Cheers

Pandora depends on which router and what connection. If you are on a US network, you'll get it but on a BVI network (or Antigua and Barbuda, as it says) you'll get a message from Pandora saying "This service is not available in your country." Tune-in Radio app works well, though.

That's what I got last year using LIME. Is there a work around? I'm kinda internet dumb <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Rick both XM/Sirius and Pandora's signal do not reach or work in BVI. It's funny some websites you go to say not available in your area?

Thanks Tarroc, I like Tunein so that works great!

Look at ALG link, we instilled them on our boat for wifi in the bvi and works GREAT! it sounded affordable for week long charters too.

Haven't tried it in the BVI, but I had the same issues with Pandora and Sirius in the Abacos last summer. Spotify worked fine though, so that might be another option.

can someone please explain the ALG link, when I Google it this is what comes up:

An ALG (Application Layer Gateway) is a security component, commonly found in a router or firewall device,

http://alglink.com

Re: TMM, yes we use it frequently. We own a boat in their fleet. WiFi is pretty fast and as far as I know, it works everywhere in the BVI, even Anegada.

Renport has one option where the router has 2 SIMs so it can get Lime or Digicel depending on which has the better signal

Thanks all for recommendations. One or two more questions if I may. It appears that while mainland carriers are providing some internet service the better option might be to pick up a local 30 day sim card from Lime or Digicel. So at the risk of getting a little geeky does anyone know if let's say a Lime sim card would work in a "global" (supports both cdma & gsm) Verizon mifi device? I spoke with Verizon and they said it should but couldn't say for sure. RickG, I presume you purchased the Huawei B681 110V router in the BVI? (I couldn't find it on Amazon). Care to mention the price? Finally, is there an inexpensive mifi router I could buy and bring with me that would work with a Lime sim card? If yes, what'd it cost and where could I find it? TIA

From here http://www.mrsimcard.com/lime/s-limebvi.html

LIME BVI uses the 850Mhz/1900Mhz GSM band so make sure you have a quad band GSM phone ready for your trip.

We have a Huawei Wind mifi model #E586E bought on Ebay for $30 works great

Doesn't anyone go on vacation/sailing/relaxing anymore to "get away from it all"? Not judging, just wondering. I am so happy that my phone doesn't work there so my constant barrage of emails and calls from work ceases. That all by itself is a vacation. We do check up on things at the bars at night at each anchorage since you get free wifi almost every place you go. But this is limited to sending pictures back to everyone to rub it in. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

jboothe, I can go on a one week vacation and not check in at the office. But, my boss is a jerk (self employed with two companies) and I've got to stay in touch if I'm gone longer than a week. I'm a lot happier keeping up with email and I'm the first one up in the morning. I got away with only one work call during our recent two week trip thanks to email.

The router I bought was from the Digicel store. The price was as listed on their site, $159 for pre-paid option, $55 for 3GB - http://www.digicelbvi.com/en/phones/phones_list.php?manufacturer=28

I tried to get an old unlocked mifi to work with a mail order sim card, but never got it to behave. The guys at LIME store probably could have made it work, but we weren't taking a day to go by the store. Talking to their phone tech support, it sounded like they needed to do a quick setup on their side to for a device new to their network.

If you plan on stopping by the store to pickup a pre-paid sim card, make certain you call in advance to make certain they have what you want in stock. Mrsimcard.com worked fine for voice/text for my old unlocked iphone 4.

I haven't tried to get a cdma/gsm phone work on LIME or Digicel. I'd give them a call and ask. Their staff I've met in the stores for both companies are competent.

Cheers, RickG

When I first got the mifi, Lime store did have to set it up. Jboothe, we own our business and travel 3+ months a year, staying in touch is what allows us to own a boat in the Caribbean. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Although Rick and Evan certainly have a point for business owners who have a stake in their own businesses but can steal some time to go to the islands but for wage slaves I certainly agree with you. Now that I'm retired I don't have anything to get away from but I do like to check the weather, my emails and TTOL! Being "connected" at the bars or onboard is discretionary for us!

It all depends on the frequencies and protocols the carrier is using and that the device can support. I don't know that cdma is available in the BVIs (except Verizon/Sprint from the USVIs) so the GSM connection is probably your best bet on that device. I do know that on Lime's website they state that 850 mhz provides 3G speeds using hpsa+ which is pretty good. I believe Digicel is using 2100 for UMTS which is 3G but am not sure what level of protocol/speed that includes. So first figure what frequencies the device is capable of and which protocols it supports on that frequency then make sure the carrier matches or exceeds that level of support for the device.

People we were with in October who had ATT had service for what seemed almost everywhere! Maybe not Leverick but certainly Tortola (even east), Cooper and Jost. My Verizon had better service 5 years ago when I could hit St Thomas towers, this time I might has well have been in the Amazon jungle. So frustrating, I would love to be disconnected but alas I don't have that luxury as a business owner either.

We have AT&T service in Leverick. I have Virgin. I look out at Sir Richard's new house but can't get service. He must be on AT&T.

Sorry but I have had Sirius on my boat in North Sound for 10 plus years now! Key is using the proper antenna.

ATT recently added a cell tower on the east end of St. John. The south side of St. John now has signal. The furthest out I got ATT signal was the anchorage outside of Spanishtown, VG - St. Thomas Bay. The furthest we used to be able to get signal from the beach at Nanny Cay, Norman Island and Jost with line of sight to St. Thomas or Bordeaux Mountain, St. John. ATT has certainly gotten better.

I saw 5mbps/2mbps (speedtest.net) on Digicel throughout the BVI with link layer speeds reported as 7mbps/3mbps by the router's diagnostics. We had some Digicel signal at Christmas Cove and Independent Boat Yard.

With any luck, we'll see a day soon where we have gsm signal well overlapping the USVI and BVI.

Open wifi options are decreasing and I saw quotas and rate limiting on the open networks in the BVIs last week. In the evening I also saw networks that had no free remaining IP addresses - too many users online. I put an Alfa wifi amplifier up our signal halyard in Biras Creek and at Leverick and was able to get some access for a short bit on a few networks. We were art the back of the Leverick mooring field and could not see the JumbieBeachBar network from there. At this point, I'd use a wifi amplifier as backup.

Zanshin has been around a good number of times with a much better wifi amplifier.

Cheers, RickG

The rental car I had for a day in Tortola in December had a Sirius radio and it had service.

Opps! I meant Digicel's website said they have hspa+ on 850MHz. Reference Digicel 4G Phone Services
I have an email in with Lime asking what protocols they are using on what frequencies and will report back if I am able to get information from them.

World Timezone GSM claims that Lime and Digicel both have 3G in the 2100MHz frequency.

Finally, Wikipedia's list of mobile network operators in the Americas claims that LIme has hpsa+ on 850MHz and Digicel has hpsa+ on 1900MHz.

I will try to contact both companies to see what they say and will report back.